Chapter 1
On a bright morning, Ayra and Arya were still sleeping on their beds, dreaming. Their mom called out, “Aryaaa, Ayraaaa. Are you both still sleeping? I thought you guys wanted to go to the park today”. Both of them woke up all excited. “Of course mom, I have been dreaming of it”, Arya said, rubbing his eyes. Mom smiled at the young Arya. “Me too!”Ayra exclaimed.
This was the day they were looking forward to, from one long year. They were going to “The Lost Amusement Park”. It was the most popular park in the town and everybody who had visited the park said, “It’s the happiest place in the world”. The description people always gave made Ayra and Arya want to go there at least once. It was said that one should visit that place with the lowest expectations and only then the visitor can enjoy it to the fullest. So, Ayra and Arya decided not to ask for any description or information about the park.
Today was the day. They started off, as early as they could. They had collected the address from their friend who had been there already. When they reached the park, the place looked abandoned. The entry arch had a loud engraved name on it, “The Lost Amusement”. To their surprise there were no guards at the entry and no people in it. So, now they understood why it was called lost amusement. People here feel like they are lost and experience everything new. They get to explore things on their own.
They entered the park, the walkway looked endless, having subways leading to many attractions. First one looked like a cave, so they went inside and had a look. That cave was filled with statues of unfamous large gigantic animals. It didn’t look much fun to Arya, he said, “No, this place is not for me. There must be a better place.” Ayra nodded. They walked out.
They looked at other platforms. Ayra said, “Apparently, we can’t see other visitors. What is this for?” “Let’s go and see”, Arya suggested. They walked up to the dais. Once Ayra stepped on, the stage divided into circular paths and Ayra started revolving around the dais center. After two revolutions, it started speeding up. Ayra screamed, “Wow! This is so cool!”.Arya said, “Let me join too. It looks fun!”, excited. The moment he stepped on it, it stopped and Ayra tripped to the ground. Arya ran for help. He apologetically said, “I didn’t know that it would stop. I’m so sorry”, helping her getup. She replied, “No, this was not fun! Arya, let’s do one thing. Let’s go to the last attraction first, like to the end of the park.”, getting up and dusting her skirt. Arya was wondering why. She suggested, “Cause, by the time we finish all the parks, we will reach the gate and we can leave.”, reasoning out. She exclaimed, “This looks like a very big amusement park!” Arya was thoughtful. ”What do you think?”, she asked.
Arya was more of an easy-going boy. He just wanted a great day without any mess and argument. He agreed, “Sure. I’m fine”. They walked at the point where it looked like the walkway ended but there was a big lake, with an undefinable edge. It looked like this was a mysterious river in the mid of a dense forest. Arya exclaimed, “This is beautiful!”. Ayra jumped and clapped along. She said,”I want to ride a boat first.” Arya said, “Bingo! I too thought the same.” They quickly hopped onto the nearest boat and started sailing. Ayra said, “I never thought this park would be this genuine. I’m so excited! Arya added,”So true, the best part is that there are no retail shops to distract and no population to disturb. Each to their own. It’s like this park saying, ``people, come, join me and peacefully get L-O-S-T’ ”. Ayra agreed and both laughed.
On the other hand, there was a spirit relaxing on top of the tree, watching these kids rowing the boat. It said to itself, “Who are these little kids? What are they doing in this abandoned park? I should find out. ”, biting an apple. It immediately flew near the boat to hear them.
Arya was already rowing the boat for 30 minutes, now. He looked at Ayra and asked, “Shall we go back? I don’t see anything amusing here.” “I thought there would be some water park attractions to discover here”, he added. Ayra suggested, “Let’s row for a few minutes longer and see. If it’s still just a normal river, then let’s go back. It means this is just for relaxing in the lake, rowing a boat‘. Just then, they heard a voice say,”What are you expecting out of a lake?”.
Arya and Ayra almost jumped and turned around. To their surprise, there was no one. Now, this scared both to the core. Ayra said, “Turn the boat around, let’s go back”, tapping on Arya’s shoulder. Arya was trying to change the direction of the boat. Spirit saw the kids panicking and decided to become visible. Ayra and Arya saw a gigantic human-like figure appear in front of them, out of nowhere. This scared them even more. They screamed at the tip of their voices at once. Arya jumped into the water. Ayra was scared to think of anything and sat there crying in panic. Spirit was worried looking at them. Before they could do anymore harm to themselves, it picked the drowning Arya from the lake and put him back in the boat.
This time, they screamed even louder. They thought, this ghost is not gonna let go of them and have fun scaring them. Spirit was confused and roared, “SHUT UP BOTH OF YOU!”. They stopped screaming at once. Suddenly something flashed in Arya’s brain. “Are you a part of this attraction”, Arya asked, trying to make sense. “What attraction?” spirit asked Arya, still confused. “No, you are not human so you’re definitely not a crew member.” Ayra added. “Who is a crew member?” spirit asked, turning to Ayra. Ayra and Arya looked at each other, “What are you trying to do?”, they asked simultaneouly. “Who are you too? What are you doing here?”, spirit asked.
